Brooke Taylor-Windham
Brooke Taylor-Windham is one of the supporting characters in Legally Blonde, and is the widow of Hayworth Windham. She is the stepmother of Chutney Windham. Plot Brooke Windham is a famous fitness instructor accused of murdering her husband Hayworth Windham. Defending her in criminal court is Dr. Callahan, Esq. and his junior attorney, Emmet Richmond. Elle Woods, Vivian Kensington, and Warner are also present in the courtroom as part of Callahan's internship program. Brooke was once Elle's fitness instructor and a member of her sorority. Elle believes Brooke is innocent, but Brooke's stepdaughter, Chutney and the household cabana boy, Mr. Salvatore, say she is guilty, and that they saw Brooke standing over Windham's dead body, covered in his blood. Brooke testifies that she loved her husband and only found him after he had been shot to death. Brooke refuses to provide Callahan an alibi, but when Elle visits her in jail, Brooke admits that she had liposuction on the day of the murder. Public knowledge of this fact would ruin Brooke's reputation as a fitness instructor, so Elle agrees to keep it secret and refuses to reveal the alibi to Callahan, citing attorney-client privilege. The case against Brooke begins to weaken when Elle deduces that the cabana boy is gay after he correctly identifies Elle's shoe style as Prada, because, as she says, "straight men don't know designers". Callahan brushes off Elle's opinion as ridiculous, but during the cross-examination, Emmett tricks Mr. Salvatore into identifying his boyfriend in court, proving that his testimony about having an affair with Brooke was a lie. After court is adjourned for the day, Callahan invites Elle into his office, where he sexually assaults her, touching her without her consent and making suggestive comments. Vivian only sees the touching, and misinterprets this interaction as Elle trying to advance her career by sleeping with Callahan. In her anger, however, she does not notice Elle's clearly visible body language and discomfort. After Elle storms out of Callahan's office, deciding to quit law school altogether rather than report the sexual assault for fear of not being believed, and afraid of the power Callahan has over her future, Vivian confronts Elle in an elevator and all but calls her a disgusting harlot. The next day, Emmett explains Elle's encounter with Callahan to Vivian and Brooke. Brooke is enraged and Vivian realizes her mistake. Before the trial continues, Brooke dismisses Callahan and hires Elle as her new attorney with Emmett supervising. Elle begins shakily while cross-examining Chutney, who testifies that she was home during her father's murder, but did not hear the gunshot because she was in the shower washing her hair after getting her hair permed earlier that day. Elle asks Chutney to reconfirm her story, then asks why Chutney, who admitting to having at least 30 perms before, would wash her hair after getting a perm, since she would be well-informed of the rule that one must not wet one's hair within the first 24 hours would for it would have deactivated the ammonium thyglocolate. Given that Chutney's curls were still intact in the courtroom, her alibi was busted. Exposed, Chutney reveals that she thought it was Brooke walking through the door. She was angry with her father for marrying someone the same age as she, and hated Brooke for marrying her father. After this outburst, the judge has the bailiff take her into custody where she would then be charged with the 1st Degree Murder of Hayworth Windham. Category:Character Category:Female characters